It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Friday I saw this great play for 10 bucks at the DIA. A local theatre group, Mosaic Youth Theatre put on an excellent performance of a play titled Hasting Street. Hasting Street was the center of the Black community from the 1920's through the mid 1950's. It was wonderful I wish had seen it earlier so I could tell more people about it. Here is an excellent article http://www.modeldmedia.com/features/mosaic44.aspx

It really touched me because it took place in 1946 the year my father graduated from Northeastren High School. The play took place at Miller High which was the first predomently black high school in Detroit. My father grew up near Hastings and had lots of friend that attended Miller. His family was forced to relocate because of urban renewal. (His childhood home 998 E. Ferry is now I-75.) Rick Sperling the Founder and CEO of Mosaic spoke before the play about how when the kid did their reseach before starting to learn the script that the folks they spoke to always would start off saying how wonderful their youth was and how kids today don't know what they were missing. By the end of the conversation they would start remembering how hard it was to be Black in Detroit during that time and say that kids today are so lucky they don't know how good they have it. I've been having that conversation with my father my whole life so I know what I am missing and I know how lucky I am.